To Identify Welfare Indicators During Wildlife Research 1

The UK provides resources for wildlife researches, but at the same time has regulated the level of the animals in the process. If your organization is to do any kind of research in the wild, it will be very important to get a license. There are numerous wildlife organizations in UK that would press legal charges if you inflict pain to a large population of animals in a habitat while researching. Welfare assessment is always important to ensure that very little distress or disturbance is being done to the specimen or surrounding animals. To do so effectively, you will have to look at a number of aspects.

Welfare indicators for wildlife research

There is a set framework by not only the UK, but also the European Union providing guidelines on how the welfare of animals under research should be assessed. These indicators include body appearance, behavior, environment, body functions and even observations of body changes. If you are going to inflict any distress among the animals being studied, then considering these aspects will be very vital. Before you embark on any research procedures, it is very important to break down parts of the process that may cause pain and any other forms of distress to the animal. It is after identifying the respective stress aspects that one is able to limit distress as required.

Parameter to be considered

An ideal list of welfare indicators should always utilize objective criteria that takes care of issues such as body weight while at the same time considering subjective indicators such as coat color. Most of these parameters will help determine which specimen to use in the research. Additionally, the number of chosen indicators should be able to determine different levels of stress and pain in the whole process of research.

Finally, expert researchers advise that you schedule frequent observations to ensure that no distress or disturbance indicators should go unnoticed. For nocturnal animals such as rats and mice, suffering may mostly show up at night and if you are not there to check, then the pain may go unnoticed.